Mark Spencer, PLEA President, and the Dark Spots on His Career Record

In response to my request for a comment from the Phoenix Police Department concerning Phoenix Law Enforcement Association President Mark Spencer's challenge to the current Operations Order 1.4.3, PPD spokesman James Holmes got back to me yesterday. His comment follows below. But first a little background.

As I discussed in this week's column item "Union Blue," Spencer recently went on a ride-along with two cops working the area near 36th Street and Thomas Road, where day-laborers congregate in a parking lot shared by Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and other businesses.

On July 14, Spencer arrested Alvaro Grijalva, who admitted that he was there looking for work, and that he was in the country illegally. Spencer didn't take Grijalva in to be booked. Instead, he called Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE agreed to take Grijalva, and Spencer transported Grijalva to ICE after running the whole thing by a Phoenix Police sergeant on duty.

Spencer then called his wing-nut buddy J.D. Hayworth, afternoon saliva jockey for conservative radio station KFYI 550 AM. On the air, Hayworth crudely excoriated the PPD's higher-ups for not having all their cops roust illegals as Spencer did in this case. The effect would be to turn Phoenix cops into immigration enforcers, similar to MCSO deputies during an anti-illegal sweep.

I believe that Spencer went out that day looking to test the limits of the operations order, though he denies this is the case. See, Spencer is a nativist activist, with a thinly-veiled personal agenda when it comes to immigration. This is not the first time he's exploited xenophobia and helped Mexican bashers in this town sow the seeds of discord. And likely, it won't be the last.

This current arrest is a sensitive matter, because the new operations order was forged during the 2007 Pruitt's standoff, and the PPD is not looking to return to that bit of ugliness, which could have easily turned violent with minutemen and pro-immigration activists facing off against each other.

So the PPD's measured response was not a surprise:

"The Phoenix Police Department is looking into that investigation," said Holmes, "and into that arrest. At this point, they're reviewing the report and procedures in the report to ensure that...it was in accordance with our operations orders. We just don't have a conclusion about it at this time."

In other words, Spencer's tossed a vial of nitro into their laps, and they're trying to figure out how to handle it without an explosion.

"Spencer insists that, in his day job, he speaks as a cop, not a
pastor, although his moral compass `comes from the power of Jesus
Christ.'"

That's just swell. But did the author of that drivel bother to pull
Spencer's personnel file? I did. And Spencer's career has not been
without blemish. Several incidents in his earlier days on the force
speak to what might be seen as a tendency to act rashly and fail to
follow PPD guidelines: Kinda like he did on July 14 in making an arrest
that may have been in violation of Operations Order 1.4.3, which states
that, "Federal immigration law...will not be utilized as the sole cause
for a stop or contact."

"You failed to use appropriate progressive force," reads the review,
"with two prisoners when you grabbed them by the hair, pulled them from
their vehicle, and continued to pull them as they crawled on their
hands and knees approximately 20 feet to a patrol car. You also told
one of the prisoners to `crawl like a dog.'"

In
1990, he ran up on a suspect by himself with his gun drawn, instead of
waiting for backup. When he pushed the suspect with one hand, the
suspect pushed back and his gun was discharged accidentally. No one was hurt. There's no record of him being punished for this.

In most of these cases, Spencer, who has been with the PPD for more than 20 years, said he would do things differently
today. He rationalized the gun out of the moving car, pointing out that
the guy he was after was a bank robber, and that at least one
high-level PPD assistant chief agreed with his action. On the
accidental discharge of his gun, he had no quibble. For the "crawl like
a dog" incident, he had an interesting explanation.

"The point behind it was," explained Spencer, "to control the
prisoner without causing injury. He was failing to move back in my
direction, and it would have been inappropriate for me to drag him
across asphalt and to convey how I wanted him to move with me. That was
the statement that I made. The department found that that use of force
was out of policy. I was subsequently disciplined for it."

In general, Spencer claimed not to mind the discipline.

"Discipline is there to create behavior," he told me. "And I think
certainly improvement is always something we should seek, whether it be
a police officer or a New Times reporter."

It may be a bit unfair to knock Spencer for incidents that occurred
earlier in his career. However, his activities in challenging
Operations Order 1.4.3 deserve similar scrutiny, and in my opinion,
punishment, despite Spencer's current position as the PPD union
rep. That's because his provocation is potentially as or more dangerous than the
discharge of that weapon so long ago, particularly should it result in another
Pruitt's standoff.